Quotes of the day

posted at 10:39 pm on May 2, 2012 by Allahpundit

“I shouldn’t write about this. I’m way too insane on this topic, too strident and militant and prone to uncharacteristic flights of outrage. Very few things offend me, but someone passing himself or herself off as Native American when he/she is white by any reasonable definition, and doing so in a way that might accrue personal benefits and perhaps even harm, indirectly, the opportunities of those who are genuinely members of an underrepresented racial or ethnic minority, raises the hackles on my dander…

“It so happens we’ve discussed this a lot in my household in recent years, as my girls have applied for college. They have, according to family lore, Native American ancestry. This goes back to the 1800s, when my mother’s forebears were pioneers on the frontier in the upper midwest. Supposedly we have Potawatami kin. But it’s sketchy. We’ve never documented it…

“Could my kids have tried to pass themselves off as Native American? Maybe, but it would’ve been wrong, a gaming of the system in hopes of getting a marginal advantage they didn’t need to begin with (they got into great schools — one is at Oberlin, another at Michigan — the upper midwest!). They’re white, and belong to a sprawling tribe of affluent kids in Northwest Washington and have had every advantage in the world except perhaps being forced to wait for the bus when Dad won’t give them a ride somewhere.”

***

“The hottest Senate race in the country is currently the one between the Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown and his challenger, Elizabeth Warren. Right now the big issue involves whether Warren, who could be one-32nd Cherokee, did anything wrong when she listed herself as a member of a minority group in a legal directory. ‘Professor Warren needs to come clean about her motivations for making these claims,’ said a Brown spokesman.

“Several thoughts arise, including A) one-32nd really does not seem like a lot and B) any controversy in which the accusing side demands that an opponent ‘come clean about her motivations’ is not going to go very far.

“I’m sure this will blow over soon and we can get back to debating whether the pickup truck that Brown famously drove in his working-class-guy campaign to win the old Ted Kennedy seat was originally purchased to tow the family show horse.”

***

“Once again, the left’s incurable love affair with oppression chic is on naked display. It’s an Olympic competition of the haves to show their have-not cred. Just a few weeks ago, it was the White House tokenizing Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor — the ‘wise Latina’ — as ‘disabled’ in an official graph promoting the administration’s minority hiring practices. What’s her disability? She has diabetes. No, it’s not debilitating, nor does it fall anywhere near the definition of disability under federal law.

“But like their friend Elizabeth Warren, the Ivy League social engineers at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. just couldn’t help embellishing their ‘diversity’ record to score political correctness points. Birds of a manufactured feather flock together.

***

“This is, admittedly, a difficult and even painful question, because all professors bring to their work the totality of their life experiences. Warren’s family accounts of Native American ancestry may well influence her legal views. But that only makes her like most white professors, whose backgrounds — which may include immigrant journeys, hardscrabble childhoods, and traumatic blows — inform their perspectives. However, a person who promotes himself or herself as a member of a minority group for hiring purposes shouldn’t be referring to a long-ago ancestor or two: They should consider it their dominant ethnic group…

“Unless evidence emerges to suggest otherwise, Warren doesn’t need to explain herself any further. There’s nothing untoward about citing one’s actual ancestry in a professional directory. Warren, like everyone else, has a right to her own background. It’s only in the freighted world of academic diversity that these questions become more complicated. As of now, the only apologizing should be done by Harvard Law School.”

“I checked, and her full bios also did not disclose her Native American status. Perhaps Warren just lumped all minorities together in her friendship plans.”

***

“‘The Fix’ says Elizabeth Warren has a ‘Native American problem.’ It’s more like a campaign problem. If the promising challenger to Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) can’t beat back easy-to-answer questions about her heritage, how on earth will she be able to handle weightier questions?…

“America is a melting pot of blended families and cultural identities. That Warren’s mix is as complicated as a lot of other Americans shouldn’t be a liability, and I wish she’d stop acting like it is.”

“For example, she had no problem talking about an unknown Indian ancestor from the 18th century, but she rarely speaks of her work as a litigator in 2009 on behalf of Traveler’s Insurance. She was paid $212,000 according to The Boston Globe-Democrat, for her work defending this ‘evil corporation’ from asbestos-related lawsuits brought by blue-collar workers.

“She was once proud of ‘creating much of the intellectual foundation’ of the Occupy movement. Then their poll numbers sank, and she distanced herself from their clan.

“And now we know that, after attacking Sen. Scott Brown for raising money from Wall Street, Liz Wanna-Wampum has gotten millions from law firms representing Wall Street, as well as financial industry money funneled to her through the Democratic Party.”

***

“Speaking to a reporter on a local news station in Boston, Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts cited her ancestor’s ‘high cheekbones’ (quoting an aunt) as evidence of her Native American heritage…”

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Comments

Bet some of her clan got set upon by Vikings way back in the day and there is some scandal about a guy named Sven involved. And dragon boats. Mead was involved. Lonesome and wistful glances at the horizon. A disgrace to the locals, for sure, which is why no one talks about in the family and its been forgotten.

That makes just as much sense, if not way more sense, than Native American.

High cheekbones? Hell, my grandmother was of Native American heritage in Kentucky (or so I’ve been told), and they told me to look at my father’s nose for verification. He had a nose like an “injun” in the old Warner Bros. cartoons. I sure as hell wish I’d known I was a minority before now. I could’ve been scoring some sweet “wampum” in one form or another. As it is I’m just some old white guy, and my mother’s Scottish birthright only serves to underscore my “cheapness” . . .

Seems like for all of her education, Shits Like Bull hasn’t learned the first rule of holes. And for reasons she seemingly can’t comprehend, this little episode is a LOT more damaging than she thinks …http://bit.ly/qVdDUt

My mom’s grandfather was a full-blooded Seneca (last name Clearwater) – yet she never identified herself as being “Native American.” Neither did her mother, who would have been half Seneca. I am one-eighth Seneca, one-eighth Slavic, one-quarter Austrian, and half Italian; on every application or survey I’ve ever completed, I’ve always indicated that I am “White”, because that is my predominate makeup. It would be deceitful to indicate otherwise, especially for monetary gain or some other preferential treatment.

“For example, she had no problem talking about an unknown Indian ancestor from the 18th century, but she rarely speaks of her work as a litigator in 2009 on behalf of Traveler’s Insurance. She was paid $212,000 according to The Boston Globe-Democrat, for her work defending this ‘evil corporation’ from asbestos-related lawsuits brought by blue-collar workers.

This seems like a more damnable issue for her than her alledged-smidgen-of-Native-Americaness-to-secure-Harvard-job issue.

btw, bazil, apparently Ms. Warren is not slick enough to realize that high cheekbones alone does not make one a Native American. Another distinguishing characteristic, at least among my Cherokee ancestry, is sunken eye sockets. I inherited them, dark circles included. lol

Elizabeth Warren is clearly of the tribe featured on the old tv show F Troop- the Heckawe. They migrated from NYC and when they got to the west they asked “Where the heck-a-we.”

Seriously, this is a so what moment. Warren may be 1/32 native American but it no more defines who she is than Barak Obama is a native of Hawaii. For her to identify herself as native American is offensive to all those who legitimately can place themselves in this group.

Is it too much to ask that each quote include an attribution?
I’d really rather not have to follow every link to find out who said what.
Thanks.

Dexter_Alarius on May 3, 2012 at 8:08 AM

I am always amazed at the folks who make this request. Lazy like water, I guess. Don’t you read the whole article? Maybe you should. Is it really that hard on you to open the link in a new tab? It’s very effortless you know. Oh that’s right, I forgot. Lazy like water. ; )

“Speaking to a reporter on a local news station in Boston, Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts cited her ancestor’s ‘high cheekbones’ (quoting an aunt) as evidence of her Native American heritage…”

Right as physical TRAITS go only American Indian’s have high cheekbones LOL!

Why won’t Betty Warren put the shovel down? It’s easy to poke holes in her claim simply by using Google.

This woman is a professor of law at Harvard, and she can’t understand when she is on the losing end of an argument?

This is all a part of the AA cr#p that the feds started in the 80’s to give an unfair advantage to ‘others’ over ‘whites’. She used what used to be kept as a family secret for this purpose and it worked for her. Does this sound like someone else we know?

Do you have to declare your ancestry prior to voting in MA? I think they should parse voters who are < 5% Native American. In fact, MA should spend millions analyzing election results to determine what influences this group. I assume Warren has a lock on these voters.

I am always amazed at the folks who make this request. Lazy like water, I guess. Don’t you read the whole article? Maybe you should. Is it really that hard on you to open the link in a new tab? It’s very effortless you know. Oh that’s right, I forgot. Lazy like water. ; )